Beatles contract sold for £365,000 at London auction

LONDON, United Kingdom—The contract that launched the career of the Beatles was sold Tuesday in London for £365,000 (492,000 euros, $553,000), auction house Sotheby’s said.

The document was signed by John Lennon, George Harrison, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, along with their manager Brian Epstein on October 1, 1962—four days before the release of their first single “Love Me Do.”

It was the only deal signed by the four final Beatles members with Epstein, who died from an accidental overdose in 1967 and was dubbed the “fifth Beatle” by McCartney.

The band had first signed a contract with Epstein when Pete Best was still the drummer. After his replacement by Starr less than nine months later, the two parties had to put pen to paper again.

“Without this contract, and the relationship it represents, it seems inconceivable that the Beatles could have achieved all that they did: it took more than inspired musicianship and song-writing to remake popular music,” said Gabriel Heaton, Sotheby’s specialist in books and manuscripts.

“The presentation, direction, and internal harmony of the Beatles all owed a huge amount to Brian Epstein.”

The new contract features the signatures of the musicians, with the fathers of McCartney and Harrison acting as co-signatories because their sons were younger than 21 at the time.

Under the contract, band members were required to give one month’s notice before leaving the group, while another clause stated that any member could be expelled “should two or more of them desire.”

The document also outlined the different commission rates that Epstein would receive for earnings of up to £400, up to £800 and more than £800 a week.

source: entertainment.inquirer.net

Paul McCartney: rock’s patriarch still going strong at 70

LONDON, United Kingdom – His ballad “Yesterday” is one of the most covered songs in history — but as he turns 70 on Monday, ex-Beatle Paul McCartney shows no signs of settling back to reflect on his extraordinary past.

Fresh from wowing huge crowds at Queen Elizabeth II’s diamond jubilee concert and with another headline gig — the London Olympics opening ceremony — booked for next month, retirement looks a way off for the British legend.

“If I’m really enjoying this, why retire?” the most prolific, most commercially-successful former member of the Beatles told the British music magazine Mojo last year.

“People say to me, ‘You work so hard’,” added McCartney. “We don’t work hard, we play music.”

Between his years with the Fab Four, his work with Wings and his solo career, McCartney has written or co-written more than 50 top 10 singles.

Macca, as he is affectionately known, released his latest album “Kisses on the Bottom” in February, and is just finishing a world tour.

And as he bounced onto the stage and belted out a string of hits in the shadow of Buckingham Palace this month, he did not look like a man with eight grandchildren.

It may be the singer’s third marriage, to US heiress Nancy Shevell in October, that has put the spring back in his step after his bitter divorce from model-turned-campaigner Heather Mills in 2008.

Mills walked away from the six-year marriage with a settlement worth £24.3 million (then $48 million, 30.8 million euros), and perhaps it comes as some reassurance to McCartney that his new bride has a tidy fortune of her own.

The Sunday Times Rich List estimates that Shevell, 51, brings £150 million to the couple’s coffers, giving them a combined fortune of some £665 million.

This makes him Britain’s richest performer — but he insists he has never forgotten his roots. “Deep inside I’m still the boy from Liverpool,” he has said.

Born to working-class parents in the port city in northwest England, McCartney met John Lennon at the age of 15 and the pair formed the Quarrymen, the skiffle band that eventually metamorphosed into the Beatles.

McCartney, Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr would become synonymous with mobs of screaming fans, mop-top haircuts, and an image of four men strolling over London’s Abbey Road at a zebra crossing.

Simply put, they were one of the most powerful cultural influences of their era. They are also the best-selling band in history, with their record label EMI estimating all-time sales of more than a billion discs and tapes.

Relentlessly imaginative, the band would develop the catchy tunes that sparked “Beatlemania” in 1964 into an evolving sound incorporating every influence from psychedelia to country and western.

Lennon and McCartney formed one of the most celebrated songwriting partnerships of the 20th century, but their creative differences ultimately helped bring about the Beatles’ break-up in 1970.

McCartney formed Wings with his first wife Linda in 1971, and used his ingenious ear for melody — which had earlier given life to classics such as “Hey Jude” and “Blackbird” — to rack up a decade of hits with the new group.

Linda, a renowned photographer and animal rights activist, died of breast cancer in 1998. After 29 years of marriage, McCartney described the loss as “total heartbreak”.

But he was back late the next year with a new album, of mainly cover versions, and has continued the Beatles’ experimental tradition — a techno record and two classical works are among more than a dozen solo studio albums.

He has also famously duetted with the likes of Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder.

Away from music, the singer has dabbled in painting, directed the film “Give My Regards To Broad Street”, and campaigned on causes ranging from animal rights to peace between the Israelis and Palestinians.

He has a son and four daughters — including high-profile fashion designer Stella, and Beatrice, born to Mills in 2003.

Of the four Beatles, two have since died: Lennon when he was shot dead in New York in 1980 and Harrison from cancer in 2001.

McCartney is often mistakenly described as “the last remaining Beatle” — something that the oft-overlooked drummer Ringo Starr, who is also still recording, bears with good-natured amusement.

“We are good friends,” Starr has said. “We’re the only two who’ve experienced all this who are still here.”

article source: entertainment.inquirer.net

The Beatles Release Songs as Ringtones in iTunes Store

The Beatles have signed a deal with iTunes to release ringtones for each of the songs on 1, their career-spanning collection of Number One singles. The 30-second ringtones are available in the digital store now for $1.29 each, the same price as an individual song from the band's catalog.

The Beatles' music has been available in the iTunes store since November of 2010, but only after many years of negotiations. Though the band has since sold a huge number of mp3 downloads at the digital retailer, they may have waited too long to get in the ringtone business, as the market has been in decline since smartphones and ringtone-making apps have become more popular.

source: http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/blogs/gear-up/the-beatles-release-songs-as-ringtones-in-itunes-store-20120222

John Lennon Truly a Legend

Today marks the 31st death anniversary of Legendary Beatles member, one of the founders of The Beatles John Lennon. Legendary Beatle member/legend was shot by Mark David Chapman December 8, 1980, at the age of 40 outside his New York City apartment building and died at a local hospital about 15minutes later. John Lennon is truly a legend and everybody loves The Beatles!

John Lennon's tooth on the auction block in England

Legendary Beatles tooth is set for an auction with a reserve bidding price of $16000. Yes, John Lennon's tooth will be on the auction block in England at the Omega Auction House on November 5.



The tooth was given to the former Beatles' housekeeper Dot Jarlett when she worked for Lennon at Kenwood mansion in Surrey, England in the late 1960's.

30th Anniversary of John Lennon's Death

Today marks the 30th death anniversary of the murder of John Lennon- most influential man of a generation. John Lennon was shot and killed on December 8, 1980 by Mark David Chapman outside his apartment building in New York City. It was around 10:50 PM when John Lennon was returning home from a recording session.

Millions of fans will gather at a memorial garden in Central Park, New York, opposite the apartment block where he was shot dead and many will have a vigil at a new memorial in Liverpool. John Lennon’s death anniversary will be celebrated around the World.


John Lennon is still very popular after three decades since his death and as of 2010, his solo album sales in the United States exceed 14 million units and as performer, writer or co-writer he is responsible for 27 number one singles on the US Hot 100 chart.




John Lennon was born on October 9, 1940 in Liverpool UK and he formed The Beatles in 1957, at the age of 16. He is 70 years old if he was alive now. However, John Lennon is alive and his music will remain and continue to be passed down through generations.

John Lennon Birthday

Everyone has heard one of the songs of John Lennon. Now, Google is celebrates John Lennon's the 70th birthday today with a music player Google Doodle. It is a YouTube video which is playing the popular song Imagine. A movie called "Nowhere Boy" touches on John Lennon's life. "Nowhere Boy" is the first film to dramatize the early years of John Lennon in Liverpool, his time with his first band, the Quarrymen, and the start of the Beatles. John Lennon left the music industry in 1975 to concentrate and give more time to his family. Then later return in 1980 with a comeback album, Double Fantasy, its best-selling studio album in 3 million shipments in the United States and has won the Grammy Awards for Album of the Year in 1981.

The Beatles Best Three Albums

Author: James Randall Twist

I'm such an enormous Beatles fan that it's actually extremely difficult for me to choose just three Beatles albums as my absolute favorites (and of course whenever a music critic like myself calls something the "best" that's really just that music critic's "favorite.")

I really think all of their albums are worthwhile listens (even With The Beatles & Beatles For Sale!) but of course there are some that are more worthwhile than others and in my opinion these are the three greatest Beatles albums.

#1 The White Album

The Beatles self titled 1968 double album is most well known as The White Album. There are those who consider this album to be a "mess" or miss-step after the brilliant Revolver & Sgt. Pepper (we'll be getting to both of those below.) Obviously I am not one of those.

I love the album for it's variety and for it's "anything goes" spirit. I think it's precisely because they didn't hold back that the album remains so endlessly fascinating to me.

Are "Honey Pie" and "Revolution #9" among The Beatles best tracks? No, I don't think so. But sometimes what makes something interesting isn't that it's the "best" it's that it's different. And this album has the most "different" songs on it.

#2 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Sometimes I second guess myself on selecting The White Album as the greatest Beatles album. Lately I've been thinking maybe it's time to move Pepper into that spot.

This is an album that has been dealing with a rather silly backlash for quite some time because of it being so critically acclaimed.

I'm hoping that people really listening to it with an open mind (rather than forming their opinion based on some hipster nonsense) because of the new remastered box sets leads to more people understanding what is so brilliant about this album.

And what's so brilliant about this album? Everything. I believe every track on this album is a classic. Including "Within You Without You" and "When I'm 64." People love to dismiss these tracks sometimes for being too this or that, but I think their missing the point. Pepper is like a journey through all different styles of music and they are all done so perfectly.

#3 Revolver

I think one can make a strong argument that this is the greatest collection of songs that The Beatles ever put on one album. What makes it rank below Pepper for me is that it's not quite as cohesive and although it is pretty far out (it ends with "Tomorrow Never Knows" after all) it's not quite as far out as Pepper.

What about Abbey Road, Magical Mystery Tour, Rubber Soul, & Let It Be? Like I said, this is difficult! The Beatles released a lot of brilliant albums.

Abbey Road is probably The Beatles most popular album (it's been the biggest selling remastered CD so far) now. I think that's because it's got the most "slick" and most "modern" sound to it. Conversely I think it's actually those things that turns me off from it a slight bit. Don't get me wrong, I still love Abbey Road but just not quite as much as I love these three albums.

Magical Mystery Tour is really fantastic, but of course it wasn't actually an album in the strict sense. It was originally released as an EP and was just padded out with previously released singles (such as "Penny Lane" & "Strawberry Fields Forever.") But even though that's true, I actually think it holds together as an "album" pretty well because it's trippy from start to finish (although I always think that "All You Need Is Love" seems a bit out of place at the end of the album.)

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/art-and-entertainment-articles/the-beatles-best-three-albums-1461306.html

About the AuthorJames Randall Twist recommends that you add The White Album, Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and Revolver.

The Beatles Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is the Most Overrated Album of All Time

The Beatles Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album has been universally acclaimed by critics and fans alike as one of the best albums ever made, if not THE best album ever made. Rolling Stone magazine gave the record top honors on their list of best albums of all time. Clearly the album was a breakthrough at the time it was released, due to the Beatles' use of major advancements in recording technology. But was it really the best album of all time?

The main knock on Sgt Pepper is that it is overproduced and underwritten, and contains several other flaws that do not exist on other Beatles records. Yes, I said it. There is something wrong with Sgt Pepper, and it is by far the most overrated album in the Beatles catalog, and possibly the most overrated album of all time. Here are the arguments:

1) Overproduced: The stereo effects are way too exaggerated, with vocals or other sounds panned all the way to the left or right, indicating a wild overuse of the Beatles newfound opportunity to mix a record in multitrack stereo. Albums since then, even Beatles albums subsequently produced, do not make use of such gimmicky stereo panning unless the effect is designed to be extreme. In the case of some of the tunes on Sgt Pepper, the extreme panning serves as a distraction instead of an enhancement.

2) Underwritten: Since Sgt Pepper has some of the Beatles best work, in the form of "With a Little Help From My Friends", "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds", and the magical wonder of "Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite", it is often overlooked that these remarkable tunes sit right next to some of the Beatles' most mediocre songwriting. Compare the songs on Sgt Pepper to other Beatles records that came before (Revolver, Rubber Soul) or after (the White Album, Abbey Road), and you'll notice that there are several tracks that don't appear as polished as the Beatles' best work.

Take "She's Leaving Home", for example, which paints a melancholy portrait of a girl's troubled life, using a string section in the background to emphasize the drama. It is reasonably effective, but compare it to "Eleanor Rigby", the standout track from Revolver, which accomplished a very similar theme with far superior results, both melodically and lyrically, and in the memorable quality of the string arrangements. If a recording of that caliber had been on Sgt Pepper in place of "She's Leaving Home", it would have improved the album immeasurably.

Next, take a look at "Lovely Rita", "Getting Better", and "Good Morning, Good Morning", the last of which John Lennon himself even dismissed as forgettable filler years later when distancing himself from the idea that Sgt Pepper was a "concept album". These tunes are rarely cited by fans as favorites, are not considered hits or classic Beatles songs, and frankly are a bit silly and lacking in prestige compared to the Beatles best work. There is nothing wrong with having them on a Beatles album, but their presence detracts from the idea that Sgt Pepper is a musical masterpiece.

3) Paul ruined "A Day in the Life": This dreamy album finale, whose primary structure was composed by John Lennon, has an unfortunate middle section written apparently too quickly by Paul McCartney. An honest listener will cringe just slightly when Paul stumbles through the awkward phrasing of the line "went upstairs and had a smoke, then somebody spoke and I went into a dream", which has too many syllables for the melody and lacks the usual careful semantics of Paul's typical songwriting. It's clear that the idea was to present a contrasting "day in the life" to the hazy meanderings of John's verses, but it just doesn't hold up, and sits as a wart on the record - a decent idea poorly executed.

4) They left out the two best songs: As many fans know, the recording sessions that spawned Sgt Pepper were actually started with the recording of two of the Beatles' undeniably finest tracks, "Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Fields Forever", which were released months before Sgt Pepper as a double A-sided single. Sir George Martin has said since that one of his biggest regrets was not holding onto those songs to include them on Sgt Pepper, where they almost certainly would have displaced weaker material like "Lovely Rita" or "She's Leaving Home". If they had been included, both tunes would have also bolstered the "concept" album theme, which is supposed to include childhood memories, explored within a circus atmosphere, as performed by a fictitious band. As it stands, this theme is not served at all by the weaker tunes, and the album does not hold up in hindsight as any kind of a concept album, especially when compared to later rock masterpieces like The Who's Tommy, which maintains, expands, and nurtures its theme all the way through.

As a hardcore Beatles fanatic, I love Sgt Pepper, as I love every Beatles album, but I think it is an accurate statement to say that the album is overrated when it is hailed as the Beatles finest work. Another record like Revolver, Abbey Road, or even Rubber Soul holds up much better on a song-by-song basis, and deserves that honor.

The new remastered albums came out this year, and have received rave reviews, so Beatles fans can now appreciate the music in an improved format vs anything that has been previously released. In fact, the Beatles recently released the stereo box set in the form of a Beatles USB apple, and the reviews of that product include the fact that it has an audio format called 24-bit FLAC which is superior to CDs, so fans and real audiophiles can revisit all the albums in a higher quality audio format, and have the whole Beatles collection on one USB drive.

To see a lengthy Beatles USB Apple review, click here: Beatles USB Review or visit this site: http://www.squidoo.com/buy-beatles-usb

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=James_Magary

Rolling Stones Magazine

The Rolling Stones Magazine is a bi-weekly publication that was founded in 1967 by Jann Wenner, who is still the publisher and editor, along with Ralph Gleason, who is a music critic. Founded in San Francisco during a time when it was popular to combine politics and music, it has evolved from reporting on the hippie-era interests to a mixture of in-depth political coverage, music icons, television actors and pop culture stories, with a circulation of 1.4 million people. In the very first edition, it was written that "Rolling Stone is not just about the music, but about the things and attitudes that music embraces."

Perhaps many people started reading Rolling Stones Magazine because they liked the famous person on a certain cover. In fact, many people can remember who was on the cover of the first Rolling Stones Magazine they bought and many people collect them for that same reason. Some of the famous artists that have graced the covers include The Beatles, John Lennon, Tina Turner, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Paul McCartney, Donovan and Otis Redding and Jack Goldman. Some of them have appeared more than once for a variety of reasons.

Of course, stories are another reason that people bought their first copy, and stories like the Patty Hearst abduction, was one of the most famous stories covered by Rolling Stones Magazine. In the 60's and 70's the magazine was also known for stories on how to grow marijuana and buy the supplies to do it. Later, it was criticized for turning its back on marijuana and becoming more mainstream, but many people learned about "grow-lights" and "hydro-growing" from the Rolling Stone Magazine stories, however.

Other reasons that people enjoy reading the magazine are the lists, such as The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The magazine has drawn criticism for being biased on the lists they have compiled in the past because they weren't a very diverse mixture of styles and some contained hardly any female artists.

The history of the magazine has been filled with criticism for bias, especially in the early years when the 21 year-old Wenner first founded the magazine. As it has progressed and aged through the years, the purely rock music, hippie revolution reputation has become more relaxed mainstream and other popular artists and styles of music have been included. The political views aren't quite as slanted as they used to be and the magazine is enjoying a resurging popularity, especially among the crowds that are interested in current events and pop culture.

The Rolling Stones Magazine has been published in the International arena, with many different countries involved. For 2010, a Rolling Stones restaurant is going to be opened in Hollywood, but it will have no musical entertainment ties. The magazine's name originally came from the 1948 Muddy Waters song by the same name. Of course, the Rolling Stones and Dr. Hook's song, "The Cover of the Rolling Stone" has made the magazine an American icon that most people really like or have some kind of criticism of. It has been a survivor in the pop culture reporting arena, even though there have been many changes over the past few decades.

Graeme Olsen writes for http://www.magazinesubscriptions.net.au, specialising in magazine subscriptions for popular titles.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Graeme_I_Olsen